Absa keeps brand in spite of Barclays deal
Stephen Gunnion
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Financial Services Editor
ABSA has embarked on a multimillion-rand programme to enhance its brand, in the clearest indication yet that there are no plans to rebrand the bank if Barclays is successful with its takeover.
The group yesterday announced it was revitalising and repositioning the brand in its first marketing campaign under new advertising agency, JWT.
JWT, formerly known as J Walter Thompson, won Absa’s lucrative R130m-a-year advertising account last December, replacing Young & Rubicam Gitam.
Although group marketing and communication executive Brendan O’Donnell declined to say how much would be spent on the new campaign, a source in the bank said it would cost about R20m in the first few weeks alone.
“This, I think, is going to put a lid on any questions at this stage on what is going to happen to the Absa brand,” O’Donnell said.
“We are here to stay and we are going to aggressively build on the brand.”
He said Barclays had a multi-brand strategy internationally, “recognising the need to protect local culture, local synergies and local brands”.
O’Donnell said that the integrated banking campaign would be the bank’s biggest since the merger of four retail brands into Absa in 1998.
Since the retail brand merger in 1998, O’Donnell said, Absa’s brand had built up value of almost R5bn, according to the recent SA’s Most Valuable Brands survey by brand experts Interbrand Sampson. The survey places Absa as SA’s fourth-most valuable brand, after Standard Bank, MTN and Vodacom.
“Absa is only six-and-a-half years old as a brand, yet it is the fastest-growing bank brand in SA,” Sampson said.
O’Donnell said rebranding the bank would cost about R1bn, as all signage and branches around the country would be affected.
He said the brand campaign was also an attempt to grow its market share in the sector that it dominates, as well as compete better in other areas, such as business banking.
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